Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

December 4, 2015December 5, 2015

Gap Critique; 03/12/15

My gap critique went badly yesterday. University, as well as personal troubles and my new job have all taken their toll on me; I was critiqued, and I don’t know why, but I couldn’t handle it, or even explain myself whilst being critiqued. My work, at the moment, is nothing. I’m lost.

I was proud of it beforehand, and after walking away and realising what was successful about it, and what was not, I have decided to stop crafting continuous pieces of artwork, and do some drawing for a while. Drawing is meditative, and allows me to better formulate my ideas. I have been trying so hard to create something that works, and have missed the little things that have. My thought and creation, process has involved me creating a lot of work, but work that is just rushed, and spontaneous; it is not considered as much as it should be. I will continue with the wool sculptures; their tied together forms, and their resemblance to blood and vessels is certainly very interesting to me. As mentioned in my previous post, I enjoy the way that the tubes within the cardiovascular system, as well as the wool within my previous sculptures, act upon one another; they fall and lay upon one another’s form, and interact with one another in a soft way. This is very interesting to me; how materials interact with one another, how either the same material, or different, can act completely differently when with one another. The act of putting together to objects, or materials, and seeing the result, is what interests me. Be it wire and wool, or a computer and a fire, or foam and metal, I’m interested in the delicate balance between the two substances, and how they can be utilised to draw out certain connotations or meanings inherent within.